Hey, I'm in Week 4, and had a couple questions that digging through the forums could not answer. Looking for any info or advice...

- I'm currently incapable of doing a straight pull up (unassissted lift from a dead hang). So I'm on a progression(http://www.fitness666.com/2012/06/pull- ... ssion.html) through level 1 until I can get to a good pull up. I'm currently on #2. I'm feeling this a lot more in my forearms than anything else. Also, should I start from parallel to the ground and pull up, or start below horizontal and pull until I'm parallel? I'm wondering if there might be something wrong with my form.

-What do all of you out there do for a cool down? I just kind of walk around a little bit. Is that sufficient? I don't want to do damage when the work (i.e. progressions) starts getting harder.

Hey, thats a cool site you referenced there, hadnt seen that before. As far as the rows go, neither of the starting positions you mentioned are wrong, but starting from below horizontal and pulling to horizontal would be the more difficult variation I believe. Body weight rowing becomes easier as you go more vertical because the more your feet are under you, the less weight you are lifting. Your forearms feeling it is pretty normal, you are building your grip strength probably, which you will need when you do pull-ups.

For cooling down I like to walk around too, but I also like to throw in some shadow boxing for my upper body. Stretching can also be a great cool down. In fact, I should stretch more! Hope I answered your questions.

Since you feel it in your forearms and not your back, I'd say go back to level 1 of the progression and practice door pulls by flexing your back. Meaning that if your back doesn't flex, you don't move forward. Practice how it feel when you flex your back to squeeze your shoulder blades together. Practice how it feels when you flex your back as you move your elbows back. Practice doing a vertical pull using one arm at a time: use your free hand to reach behind you and make sure that your lats are flexing. (Your body likes to cheat, especially if you're new to fitness training.)

Terminate the set when you can no longer achieve movement by flexing your back, regardless of what you could do if you simply pulled with your hands.

In the beginning progressions of anything you need to wake your body up. You've got muscles you've never used before and you need to get them firing or you're going to stall out later.